Villa may have left White Hart Lane empty handed last weekend but Paul Lambert's men emerged with some kudos from football traditionalists.

The modern trend of colourful football boots has been under scrutiny over the past fortnight with several top-flight managers having their say on the subject.

It prompted a 'Boot Watch' feature from the Daily Mail after the latest round of Barclays Premier League games.

The newspaper's study showed that only 21 of the 220 players involved in last weekend's games opted to wear traditional black footwear.

But Villa led the way for the purists with four players - Ron Vlaar, Ciaran Clark, Fabian Delph and Matthew Lowton - sticking to the classic boot colour for the Tottenham clash.

Ground-hopping has always been a popular hobby for fanatical football fans.

While some supporters aim to complete the full set of 92 English League grounds, others like to venture further afield to check out the more obscure stadia.

Gary Thomson has gained a large following through social media after providing regular updates on his ground-hopping adventures.

From Schalke to St Mirren, Celtic to Cirencester, Gary has built up an impressive list on his travels.

He tweeted us the following picture after making Villa Park stop-off No.88 on his tour.

Speaking of football jetsetters, it is a busy week for a number of Villa stars who are heading off to various locations to play for their national sides.

At this rate, Andreas Weimann will be known as 'Air Miles Andi' given the number of journeys he will have completed for Austria's World Cup qualification double-header against Kazakhstan.

The striker took to Twitter to keep us updated on his voyage.

Jack Grealish was also among those taking to the skies for international duty with Republic of Ireland U19s.

Grealish and Villa team-mate Michael Drennan are in the Ireland squad for a European Championship qualifying tournament in Luxembourg.

His pal, Conor Wilkinson of Millwall, posted this picture of the two of them on board their aircraft.

The plaudits came flooding in for striker Drennan on Twitter after his hat-trick in the opening game against the host nation on Thursday.

Understandably, the 18-year-old couldn't hide his delight.

Villa's famous fans were out in force this week for different reasons.

Prince William and his wife the Duchess of Cambridge were on hand to open the new St George's Park national football centre at Burton.

After catching up with members of the England squad, they took a tour of the facility and addressed a number of aspiring coaches and players.

While chatting to a group of young five-a-side players from Rangemore near Lichfield, the Prince couldn't resist asking if there were any Villa supporters among them.

And he was delighted to find that one of them shared his passion for the claret and blues.

The Prince wasn't the only Villa presence at St George's Park - manager Paul Lambert joined a number of other managers at the opening of the centre.

The Prime Minister has also been in town.

During a break in the Conservative Party conference at the ICC, David Cameron visited the site of the new Library of Birmingham, where he met members of the Library Trust and business leaders.

Villa chief executive Paul Faulkner and community relationship manager Ravi Masih were also at the event - so there are no prizes for guessing what the main talking point was when they got to meet Mr Cameron.

Paul and Ravi presented the Prime Minister with some Villa merchandise for his children, ensuring that he didn't leave the city of his favourite football club empty handed!

Paul and Ravi are pictured with members of the Library Trust and local business leaders at Tuesday's event.

Stiliyan Petrov is never far away from the thoughts of Villa supporters.

Pete Gough is the latest fan to show his support for the skipper by having a 'Support Stan 19' jersey specially designed for next month's New York marathon.